


watch me stumble over and over

by rosesandspades713



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Stolen Century arc, Taako rolled an eleven but so did Lup, spoilers through ep 62
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 14:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10856352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesandspades713/pseuds/rosesandspades713
Summary: Taako refuses to spill the beans.Barry takes evasive maneuvers.Lup wants to get to the bottom of this.





	watch me stumble over and over

**Author's Note:**

> okay so the beach episode killed me dead and it was amazing
> 
> take this thing that spilled out of my brain
> 
> Fic title is from the song "Lover of the Light" by Mumford & Sons.

It’s the night before the Hunger comes this cycle, and all Taako really want is some time to himself. The beach is warm even when the sun’s down, and he’s got the Wavecarver all ready to go for a few last runs. He’s gonna miss this world, he thinks as he looks out over the waves. Well. He’s going to miss this specific beach at any rate. 

Everyone else went to bed at least an hour ago by now, so Taako’s alone out here. Just him and the waves. 

Although, he thinks dryly, he’d better keep an eye out for Magnus. Just in case. 

As it turns out, however, Magnus isn’t the one Taako should be watching out for. Just before he gets on his board to paddle out, he hears a voice from behind him. “Hey. Taako. Can I ask you something?”

He turns around, and Lup’s standing in front of him, arms crossed over her chest.

He wants to say something snappy back to her and paddle out to meet the next wave, but the way she’s looking at him stops that thought in its tracks. She looks...kind of nervous. And Lup is not a nervous kind of person. So he digs his board into the sand and leans into it. “Sure thing, Lulu. What’s up?”

She shifts her position a little bit. “The other day, I saw you talking to Barry about something and I, uh, I just wondered what it was.”

Taako knows exactly what she’s talking about. That was the conversation where his suspicions were confirmed and he found out that Barry had a crush on his sister. Part of him wants to tell her. He loves his sister, and he wants her to be happy. But another part of him knows that what Barry shared with him isn’t his secret to tell. That’s on Barry. 

“Aw, you know. Just some more swimming tips,” he says. “No big deal.”

She doesn’t look convinced. “Taako. Come on. Spill.”

If this were anything else, he would. Lup has always been good at figuring out if he’s lying, and she never relents until he tells her the truth. But he knows he shouldn’t betray Barry’s confidence like that. So he goes with the next best thing.

“You should really ask Barry,” he says, pushing his hair back from his face. He likes the look he’s developed on this world, but it’d be too annoying to keep up for more than one cycle. His hair keeps falling in his eyes. “It’s not really my place to tell you what he said.”

She looks taken aback. “You guys were talking about me, weren’t you?” It’s not a question, it’s a statement. 

“Ah ah ah! My lips are sealed!” Taako mimes zipping his lips. “If you want answers, go talk to Barry.”

She opens her mouth like she’s about to say something, but then she stops, closes it, and heads back to the Starblaster. Taako watches her go, and sighs to himself. 

Maybe he  _ should _ have said something, because at this rate, the two of them will be dancing around each other for twenty  _ more  _ years.

* * *

 

They’re two months into the next cycle, and Lup is concerned.

Barry’s been avoiding her ever since they left the beach world, and she’s been trying to figure out why. 

It’s not like he’s being subtle about it, either. He’s never exactly been  _ talkative _ around her, but now when she’s near him, it’s like he’s lost his voice. He avoids making eye contact with her, and always makes excuses to be somewhere else. And it’s getting really annoying. Sure, she likes to tease him and call him a nerd, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t  _ care  _ about him. Barry’s her friend, and she just wants to know what she did wrong. What she did to hurt him.

And, well. She  _ misses  _ him. She misses the way he blushes when she tries on his glasses, and the smile he gets on his face when he’s talking about something nerdy. How excited he gets when they make a breakthrough in tracking the Light of Creation. 

There’s a part of her that wants to ignore what that means. To chalk it all up to a few jokes among friends. But Lup knows better than that. She knows how she feels. She’s just worried that Barry doesn’t feel the same, and  _ that’s  _ why he’s been avoiding her. Maybe she pushed too hard, made her feelings too obvious. This is why it would be great if Taako would just  _ tell  _ her what he and Barry talked about. Then she wouldn’t have to figure it out on her own. 

She gets her chance to find out what’s going on one night, when everyone else is out getting the Light. Barry volunteered to stay behind with the Starblaster, so she did too. Maybe he’ll open up if it’s only the two of them.

She finds him in the kitchen a little before dinner time. By the smell, she can tell he was trying to cook something. He never really got the hang of it, even when she and Taako walked him through a few recipes. He hasn’t cooked at all since then. Until now. 

Lup figures it’s because he still doesn’t want to be around her and almost turns around to leave, but then she steels herself. She’s not going to have another chance like this. 

“Hey, Barry,” she says as nonchalantly as she can muster. He looks over his shoulder and she sees the flash of panic in his eyes. She winces, but presses on. “You know, if you want dinner, I’d be happy to make something for you. I’m kinda good at that?”

She’s underexaggerating, of course. She and Taako both rule the kitchen on the Starblaster. But Barry lets out a little chuckle, and that’s exactly what she wanted to happen. She loves his laugh, and this is the first time she’s heard it since the beach. She’s missed it. 

“I, uh, didn’t want to bother you,” he says, answering her question. 

Lup smiles, crosses her arms, and leans against the kitchen counter. “Barry. Please. We all know what happened the last time you tried to cook. Let me help?”

He nods, and she moves in, scraping whatever it was he was trying to make out of the pan and quickly scrubbing it off. 

“What do you want?” she asks. “It’s still pretty early in the cycle, so we have almost everything.”

“Oh, uh, whatever you want is fine.”

“Come on, Barry. Pick something!”

He’s silent for a second. “Could you, uh, could you make that chicken dish? The one with the cheese on it?”

“On it!” She knows exactly what he’s talking about. A couple cycles ago, she and Taako made chicken parmesan for the group. Everyone loved it, especially Barry. Lup remembers him eating three helpings. It made her smile then, and the memory of it is making her smile now. 

She enlists Barry’s help in making dinner, and it’s the first quality time they’ve spent together this entire cycle. She didn’t realize just how much she missed him until now. She knows she never wants to go this long without being with him again. 

So while the chicken is baking, Lup figures this is as good a time as any to find out what’s been going on. 

“Hey Barry, can I ask you something?”

He looks at her, and she can see the panic from earlier come back. “Oh, uh, what is it?”

She takes a deep breath, and then all her anxieties from the last two months just spill out. “Well, it seems that, uh, that you’ve been avoiding me? This cycle? And I just want to know if it’s something I did wrong because you’re a really great friend and I know I call you a nerd a lot but you do know that’s a good thing, right? And I’ve just m-missed you a lot and I wanted to apologize for anything I might have done to hurt you because I would never do that on purpose.”

She stops, a little short of breath, and waits for Barry to answer her. 

“Lup,” he says after a moment of tense silence, “you, uh, you did nothing wrong. You’re uh, you’re great, you’re really great, and it’s my fault that I’ve been avoiding you.”

His blush grows deeper as he talks, and he looks down at his hands when he’s done. 

“But what happened?” Lup reaches out a hand to touch his shoulder. “Everything was fine until we got to this cycle! What—oh.”

And then she remembers something. A piece of the puzzle that was, frankly, obvious from the beginning. “You’ve been acting differently ever since you and Taako had that talk.”

He looks up at that, and she knows she’s struck gold. “Taako didn’t, uh, say anything about that, did he?”

She shakes her head. “No,” she says. “He told me to ask you. Which I was  _ planning  _ to do, but then you started avoiding me and I had a whole new problem!”

As she talks, his expression turns to relief, and then straight back to panic. 

“Barry,  _ please, _ ” Lup says. “Tell me what’s wrong? Tell me what you and Taako talked about?”

His mouth opens and closes a few times over the next seconds, giving Lup plenty of time to try and put everything together in her head. 

Barry’s issue started after he talked to Taako, and Taako wouldn’t tell Lup what he said, only that she should ask Barry. But then, after that (because of that?) Barry was avoiding her. Whatever he and Taako discussed, he didn’t want her to know. And now, when she’s finally confronting him about it, he still doesn’t want to open up. Heck, he  _ panicked  _ at the thought that Taako might have spilled the beans. 

Lup has a thought then, and it’s a thought she wants to crush immediately because while it’s a great thought, it’s not even a little bit likely. There’s no way Barry would have a crush on  _ her _ , right? All she does is call him a nerd and tease him.

But on the other hand, he blushes pretty hard every time she does that. And sure, maybe he’s an easy blusher. But she’s seen Taako or Magnus tease him, and he doesn’t blush nearly as much. Or at all, really. Could that possibly mean that Barry has a crush on—

“Lup, I, uh,” he starts, interrupting her racing train of thought. He’s looking at the ground, hands stuffed in the pockets of his blue, blue jeans. “I didn’t want to say anything, in case it didn’t work out, but uh, Taako told me to go for it, basically. So I guess I’m going for it, then?”

Her heart pounds in her chest as he looks up and meets her eyes. She feels a little short of breath and leans back on the counter for support. “Yeah, Barry?”

He takes a deep breath. “I, uh, I like you, Lup. A lot. As more than a friend. And I have for, uh, for a very long time now. Years. And I never said anything, because I thought you’d never feel the same way. And then Taako figured it out, and that’s what we were talking about. And then after that, I thought he might tell you, and I wasn’t ready for that, so I’ve been, uh. Avoiding you.”

Lup wants to check and see if she’s cast Levitation by accident, because she feels like she’s floating. She can hardly believe her ears. Barry...really does like her? 

She must have been silent for too long, because Barry looks ready to panic again. “I-I mean, uh, if you don’t, uh, feel the same way? That’s fine. I don’t really expect you to-”

“Barry.”

“Yeah?”

She  _ smiles,  _ a beaming, glowing smile. “I like you too.” She moves her hand from his shoulder down his arm until it finds his hand, which she tightly grasps. “A lot. More than a friend.”

Barry looks absolutely dumbstruck. He’s silent for a few seconds and then he starts  _ laughing.  _ A delighted, giddy laughter that’s so contagious Lup finds herself laughing too.

And they just stand there, the two of them. Laughing and holding hands in the kitchen. Until Lup realizes the chicken’s about to burn, at which point both of them rush to save it. It’s a close call, but they manage it.

Over dinner, they sit with their thighs pressed up against each other, and Lup’s head is on Barry’s shoulders. They don’t say much, but they don’t need to. 

After all, they’ve got time. And that’s something people in love rarely have enough of.

* * *

 

The rest of the crew rolls back in with the Light sometime in the early morning, and they find Lup and Barry curled up together on the couch, fast asleep. 

Magnus looks absolutely  _ delighted,  _ and creeps toward them, obviously planning to scare them awake. But Davenport holds him back, and simply shakes his head no. 

Merle chuckles and lightly elbows Lucretia in the side, whispering, “Saw that one coming a mile away.” Lucretia just smiles.

Taako looks at his sister, watches the careless smile that sits on her sleeping face, and gives himself a mental high five. 

Tomorrow, he’s gonna give them so much shit. It’ll be hilarious. But for now, he’s content to just let them have this. They needed it. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys liked this! Please, please give me feedback! It inspires me to write even more!
> 
> Also, please feel free to come talk to me at my [tumblr](http://rosesandspades713.tumblr.com/)! I'm on there a lot, and I'd love to scream about Lup and TAZ in general with people! 
> 
> Catch you guys next time!


End file.
